Pygmalion Tickets
About Pygmalion
Robert Jones’s dynamic revival of George Bernard Shaw’s enduring masterpiece at the Old Vic stars Patsy Ferran as flower girl Eliza Doolittle and Bertie Carvel as Professor Henry Higgins. See them in action and book your Pygmalion tickets on TodayTix.
Shaw’s brilliant tale, immortalised in musical form as My Fair Lady, sees the fiery Eliza Doolittle seeking to change her social status via speech lessons from Professor Higgins. He, in turn, makes a bet with fellow phonetics expert Colonel Pickering that he can pass off Eliza as a duchess.
Supporting characters in Pygmalion include Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle, a scrounger who impresses Higgins with his unusual take on moral philosophy; Higgins’s long-suffering mother, who despairs at his lack of social graces; and the goofy Freddy Eynsford-Hills, who falls for Eliza.
This production at the Old Vic features two leading British actors, Patsy Ferran and Bertie Carvel, as well as the bold talents of the great director Richard Jones, creating a version of Shaw’s play for a new generation. Discover this incredible transformation: book your Pygmalion tickets now on TodayTix.
Access Performances
- Audio Described: Mon 16 Oct 7.30pm
- Captioned: Fri 13 Oct 7:30pm
- Relaxed: Sat 14 Oct 2:30pm
- British Sign Language: Fri 20 Oct 7:30pm
Stars on stage
Patsy Ferran
Pygmalion cast and creative team
By: George Bernard Shaw
Director: Richard Jones
Cast list: Bertie Carvel, Patsy Ferran
Venue
Directions
Location: West End
Railway station: Waterloo
Bus numbers: (Waterloo Road) 1, 4, 26, 59, 68, 139, 168, 171, 172, 176, 188, 521, X68; (Mepham Street) 211, 243, 507
Night bus numbers: (Waterloo Road) 139, 176, 188, N1, N68, N171; (Mepham Street) 243
Car park: Waterloo Station (4mins)
Directions from tube: (7mins) Take Mepham Street (100 metres) down to Waterloo Road. Turn right on Waterloo Road, but keep left as the theatre is 100 metres further along on the opposite corner.
More information about Pygmalion
You might already be familiar with Pygmalion, My Fair Lady or both, but this version of Shaw’s play isn’t just a classic revisited. The striking production is the brainchild of Richard Jones, whose extensive work in theatre and opera includes Olivier Award-winning productions of Into the Woods in the West End and Lady Macbeth of Mtensk for the Royal Opera House.
Patsy Ferran recently pulled off the astonishing feat of inhabiting the iconic role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the last minute, after the original actress withdrew, and going toe to toe with the magnetic Paul Mescal. She was also Olivier-nominated for Summer and Smoke and appeared in the TV drama Life After Life.
Starring opposite Ferran’s Eliza is Bertie Carvel, playing Professor Henry Higgins. Carvel is an astonishing shapeshifter: he originated the role of Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical and has since played Rupert Murdoch in Ink, Donald Trump in The 47th, and, on screen, the cheating husband in Doctor Foster, the detective poet in Dalgliesh, and Prime Minister Tony Blair in The Crown.
What to watch for
- It’s fascinating to compare Pygmalion to the subsequent musical, My Fair Lady. You can spot many of the scenes and lines of dialogue that inspired its famous songs, such as Eliza’s training progress that leads to the triumphant “The Rain in Spain” or Higgins’ rant about what happens when you let a woman into your life.
- There are several versions of Shaw’s play. The original premiered in 1913 and was published in 1914, but he revised it following the various adaptations. In fact, that “rain in Spain” pronunciation exercise was an addition for the 1938 film. For this production, Jones has combined the 1913 original text with that movie screenplay.
- The ending of Pygmalion (and later My Fair Lady) has always inspired furious debates. Shaw resolutely refused a “happy ending”, and even added a postscript to his 1916 text explaining what happened afterwards – i.e. that Higgins and Eliza did not end up together. But the film ends on a more ambiguous note. Jones has a fresh solution here: see whether you agree with it.
- The design of this Pygmalion frames the action in a whole new way. Stewart Laing’s set could be read as a sounding board or graph paper, and includes elements of a laboratory, while the costumes range right from the 1930s through to the present day. It takes a period story and joins the dots to where we are now.
Tickets
Unfortunately, tickets for this event are no longer available.
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